Jack Betts

(1904 - 1966?, USA)

Super Suds ad (21 September 1947)

Jack Betts was an American illustrator, and the author of many advertising comics for Ben Gay, Nestlé, and Super Suds in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born John George Betts in New York in 1904, and he had his art training in Jersey City. As a boyscout, he already made illustrations for the Jersey Journal's Scouting column. Little is known about his activities during the 1920s, but his name popped up in 1936 in an advertising campaign for Old American Brand whiskey, for which he drew the 'Prof. Jim Crack' comic feature.

Neddy Nestlé (1/2/1953)

He made most of his advertising comic features through Johnstone and Cushing in the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s. These include the 'Peter Pain' series for Bengay heat rub, that ran in the Sunday papers, and the long-running 'Neddy Nestlé' feature for Nestlé's instant cocoa. Other ad panels by Betts include 'The Ribbers' for Ten High Whiskey, as well as melodramatic ads for Super Suds detergent.

Britannia Mews, French-Canadian edition (Photo-Journal, 8/7/1948)

Betts has additionally worked as an illustrator for magazines like Collier's (a.o. the weekly column 'Keep Up With The World'), American Legion, This Week Magazine and Bluebook. He also made drawings for a booklet called 'Footprints of the Trojan Horse', that dealt with the dangers of foreign spies for the Citizenship Educational Service in 1942. Other books and pamphlets illustrated by Betts include 'I Am an American' (1946), 'New Footprints of the Trojan Horse' (1952) and 'Who? Me?' (1954).

In 1946 he did an adaptation of 'Britannia Mews' by Margery Sharp as part of King Features' series of comic adaptations of novels in cooperation with the Book-of-the-Month Club. Jack Betts presumably passed away in 1966.